Dear Ridecampers, friends, ETI members, fellow horsepeople;
I am writing regarding the situation in Altadena, and in the Los Angeles area. I had written to ridecamp yesterday regarding the article in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday January 27, entitled "Trail Advocates Say 'Whoa' to Home Projects". Interestingly in the same paper there was an article by Rusty Areias who is director of the California state parks department. That article was a vitriolic attack on horsepeople, entitled, "Will Rogers Didn't Leave His Park to Horses". This man deserves email flames big time. He is determined to remove the horse boarding from the park from the "Historic Barn" citing too much work, soil compaction in the corrals, and pollution of the creek. He complains about the "priveledged few", their "private grooms working in the area" (That's funny, I thought the park service did all the work. He wants those nasty animals removed, but of course they will continue with Polo, (which is not a private, nor privledged activity) and maybe they will have rental horses, or maybe a horse show or maybe a public demonstration of roping.
My friend and I went over to Altadena today, to the particular trail that was mentioned in the LA times. On the south side of the street is a flooded arena. From there a narrow trail heads north, across a street, and between a chain link fence and a wire cable. The trail passes right by a busy park/gymnasium complex. Then it seems to disappear into a trash filled gully, and then veers to the east because of the private gated area of development. From there it picks up again along a narrow cliff trail which was very much erroded after our recent rain. It was steep, muddy, and a severe drop off. Watch the news, next time you see a horse being helicoptered out of Altadena, it could be here.
Horse people in this area are being treated like so much garbage. The horses are considered to be like inanimate objects or vehicles with no thought to the possibility of them making unscheduled movements in unofficial directions. Riders are being squeezed out, harassed and endangered. I am totally fed up , and angered by it. My friend and I went to an Altadena restaurant to talk about it, and interestingly, we ran into 5 people in the restaurant, whom I had never met, who were horse people and jumped into our conversation. One of them my friend had met 15 years before. They discussed how Equestrian groups are a gentle giant. We are separated into smaller clubs that rarely interact, or work together. Yet we have the same looming problems and threats.
PLEASE help us, and the riders who live all throughout Los Angeles County. I swear to God I will never ignore an email plea for trail help again, be it 2,000 miles away! By email we can bombard our elected officials, and our newsgroups with our objections. We can let them know that we exist, and that we refuse to shut up, sit on our couch and watch Oprah!!! Please look at the LA Times articles at
http://www.latimes.com Then please forward this letter to anyone you know who rides a horse! It would be really easy for you to do that! Then write to the LA times, let them know how you feel about the articles. Contact LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich at this address, because he will be looking into these issues. his email is
fifthdistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us Let him know that you support the Altadena riders, that other people go to Altadena to ride, and we support businesses in the area when we are there. No matter where we go to ride, we buy gas, we buy food etc.!
Thank you so much for your support...let the writing begin!! yours...Beth Glover